A Nation looking for somebody to blame for the team’s 7-20 finish and desperate to reclaim their “cursed underdogs” have found a scapegoat in manager Terry Francona, either by way of a resignation or by the Sox deciding not to pick up his 2012 option depending on how you want to spin it. Regardless, Francona has managed his last game in Boston and now carries in his chest cavity an enormous red bullet with Theo Epstein’s name on the side.

A major league source has confirmed that Terry Francona and the Boston Red Sox have agreed to part ways.

Francona’s multi-year deal, signed as part of a contract extension in 2008, is done with the Red Sox holding two option years on his contract for 2012 and 2013. The Red Sox will not pick those option years up and instead will pay him the $750,000 buyout rather than the $4.25 million due for 2012 and $4.5 million for 2013.

This comes after a Thursday press conference wherein both Epstein and Francona expressed regrets for the 2011 season. Not being prepared, being too prepared, doing everything they could to stop the slide but not being able to “reach the team”. On a Boston radio show this morning, fans were freaking out and so confused about what’s going on that they now believe that “Sox interested in LaRussa” is about them. This is the legacy Fracona is going to leave. A team that barely missed the playoffs playing in the toughest division in Major League Baseball is suddenly “in ruin”.

This is the legacy he should leave: 744 wins, second on the franchise’s all-time leaders list after eight seasons as manager. He managed the Red Sox to two World Series titles, one in 2004 and and one in 2007, something they hadn’t been able to do since 1918 … but he missed the playoffs this season and last season, and so it goes.

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I hate this. I’m a Red Sox fan, and I hate this. They should get rid of Theo first and foremost. Oh well, maybe Cito Gaston is available.

09.30.11 at 11:33 am

Brandon

This is one of those bad decisions from a corporation doing slightly worse than before and freaking out about it. Boston is the AOL FanHouse of MLB.

09.30.11 at 11:41 am

Jade

Ah, yes, looks like we’re back to the years of Boston shooting themselves in the foot. Unless Francona’s been running around with a sledgehammer and whacking players at random, he’s certainly not the reason the Sox have tanked.

09.30.11 at 11:42 am

TBG

Boston sports fans deserve to never have their teams win anything again. That way all of the complaining will actually have some merit.

You just do not unduhstand owah pain. We ah in a complete and uttah freefall up heah. The team must be disbanded and stahted ovah. We nee more Pedroyahs, guys with haht and fiyah.

09.30.11 at 12:58 pm

Zack

THE RED SAWX NEED MOAH GRIT! IF ONLY WELKAH PLAYED BASEBAWL!

09.30.11 at 1:29 pm

Khris

WELCOME TO BOSTON LOOZAHS

09.30.11 at 1:43 pm

Tim Tebow's "Roommate"

I rendered myself temporarily retarded reading the comments about this over at Barstool [don’t judge, they report on the fuckery that is my hometown(s)]… I wonder if BDD’s ESPN:TM thread is still live…?

09.30.11 at 1:48 pm

Larry Dolan still sucks

YOU FACKIN PEOPLE DO NAWT UNDAHSTAND WHAT IT’S LIKE TO SUFFAH LIKE WE DO. IT’S BEEN 3 FACKIN MONTHS SINCE OWAH LAST PARADE, BUT IT FEELS LIKE FAREVAH.

09.30.11 at 1:59 pm

Harley Dent

Those accents-as-text really are an accurate depiction of all Red Sox fans. Great work, Internet.

This is a worse scapegoating than terminating Grady Little for not pulling Pedro in 2003. Tito brought two titles to a city that hadn’t seen one in 86 years, and this is how the brass at the Church thanks him? Thanks for the hardware and hard work, Tito – here are your walking papers. Get to steppin’.

Who the hell is going to manage this team? More importantly, who the hell is actually going to want to manage this team in the wake of this decision? What a screw job.

09.30.11 at 2:15 pm

smk73

This has Lucchino’s greasy dago fingerprints all over it. Henry and Werner are off with their new toy Liverpool, so Lucky gets to run the shop. Look for lots of stories from Lucchino’s media toadies to come out about how Tito wanted the Sox to pick up both options and he was greedy and didn’t want to live up to his contract, etc., the same way they came out after Nomar and Manny were run out of town.

09.30.11 at 7:10 pm

Miguel De La Dangeroso

I almost (ALMOST) wish I still read the Boston Globe, so I could see how ugliest man on earth Dan Shaughnessy spins this one, towing ownership line as always. did you guys know that he used to (maybe still does?) refer to Grady Little as “he who should not be named”? because he is an educated, reasonable journalist and not someone afraid of evil wizards, obviously. in summation: it was nice while it lasted. I look forward to missing the playoffs for the next fifteen years.

and yeah, Boston talk radio is pretty much exactly like the comments above, with more crying and racism.

09.30.11 at 7:13 pm

Miguel De La Dangeroso

and there are already people demanding Belichick coach two sports. Boston!